Vacuum Compatible

H2W Technologies has broad experience in designing and manufacturing vacuum compatible actuators and positioning stages. Many of our standard products are also available in vacuum compatible versions. In addition, H2W manufactures custom systems to meet the needs of specific and varied applications, including but not limited to semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace applications, and optics. These environments can vary in temperature from cryogenic temperatures to over 100 degrees Celsius, and H2W can design and supply actuators and positioning stages that can operate in these environments.

Considerations

Vacuum applications are environments with pressures from 10-3 torr in Low Vacuum Environments to 10-9 torr in UHV Environments.

You may see vacuum ratings in other units such as mbar or Pa, (1 torr = 1.33 mbar = 133 Pa).

Material Selection for the Permanent Magnetic Field Assembly and Coil Assembly must have low outgassing specifications for the specific vacuum pulled. Examples of materials available for vacuum environments are Aluminum, Ceramic, Stainless Steel, Titanium, Teflon, PEEK, Kapton, Viton, and Macor. Additionally, the surface finishes must also be reconsidered such that there are no trapped gasses.

Adhesives, Epoxies, and Hardware must be selected such that there are no trapped volumes, and manufacturing processes must be implemented for vacuum linear actuators and vacuum stages.

The bearings are lubricated with low-outgassing lubricants such as a dry lube film.

No convective cooling is available for the motor in a vacuum, therefore the actuator or stage will have a lower force rating than the same motor in standard temperature and pressure environments, however H2W can design customization of the actuator or positioning stage to maximize the conductive cooling.

At cryogenic vacuum environments the materials selected must be selected to have similar coefficient of thermal expansion to the materials that are bonded or fastened together.